Mackay Conservation Group has been successful in getting a $5,000 Natural Environment grant from Mackay Regional Council to partially fund Birdlife Mackay and other volunteers to repeat the 2014 weekly winter surveys for this and other bird species at three 10ha monitoring sites in northern Crediton State Forest next to Eungella National Park.

This is where the highest numbers of Eungella honeyeaters were recorded in 1998 which was one of the most severe La Nina years on record causing very dry conditions and a high density of flowering Eucalyptus trees.

A rare and unique bird, the Eungella Honeyeater, urgently needs its habitat protected from mining and logging if it is to survive.

The Eungella Honeyeater (scientific name Lichenostomus hindwoodi) is one of the last new species of birds discovered in Australia, identified only in the early 1980s as being a different species to the more common Bridled Honeyeater.

The only place the Eungella Honeyeater can be found is in a small area of plateau rainforest in the Clarke Range, about 65 km west of Mackay.

The Eungella Honeyeater cannot be found anywhere else in Australia and is currently listed as being “near-threatened”.

‘Eungella’ is an aboriginal word meaning ‘mountains of the mist’ – which perfectly describes its habitat.

Act now - email the Minister to protect the habitat of the Eungella Honeyeater.